# No more Elvis-themed weddings in Las Vegas chapels **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533 "2022-06-01T22:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/21 "2022-06-02T02:49:24Z")
That’s the way I read it. And John Lennon in 2030. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/22 "2022-06-02T03:17:33Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I wonder if Scientology is behind it, via Lisa Marie. I think Lisa Marie sold her majority interest in the company that held the rights to Elvis’ name, likeness, etc like 15 or 20 years ago and then it’s changed hands again a few times since. So unless Authentic Brands Group is run by Scientologists… ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/23 "2022-06-02T05:30:27Z")
For our 25th wedding anniversary, Mr VOW and I went to Vegas to celebrate. On the actual date of the anniversary, we renewed our vows at the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel with an Elvis impersonator. At the end of this month, we will celebrate anniversary Number Forty-Eight. It would be a sad, sad thing, indeed, if weddings in Las Vegas could no longer be performed by The King. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/24 "2022-06-02T12:21:49Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Could the chapels request a single hearing/trial and all contribute to the cost? This is what I was wondering. Couldn’t some sort of class action suit be brought on behalf of all the Elvis impersonators? That could eventually be made into a movie itself. Kind of a comedy-drama: “Elvis vs. Elvis”. I’m picturing a courtroom with the spectator area packed full of Elvis impersonators. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/25 "2022-06-02T14:08:44Z")
@solost 🎶 “Don’t be cruel…” 🎶 ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/26 "2022-06-02T14:36:23Z")
> [@solost](#): > > That could eventually be made into a movie itself. Kind of a comedy-drama: “Elvis vs. Elvis”. I’m picturing a courtroom with the spectator area packed full of Elvis impersonators. “We’re the Flying Elvis Wedding Officials - Utah chapter.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/27 "2022-06-02T14:43:51Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > “We’re the Flying Elvis Wedding Officials - Utah chapter.” Ha! 🤣 > [@VOW](#): > > 🎶 “Don’t be cruel…” 🎶 That might make a good alternate title, or the tagline to the movie! Hey, I just had a horrible realization: this would mean no more Flying Elvises! I don’t want to live in a world without skydiving Elvises (Elvi?). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/G9D_0pXaM68/maxresdefault.jpg "Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) - Jack Goes Skydiving Scene (12/12) | Movieclips") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9D_0pXaM68) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/28 "2022-06-02T15:44:09Z")
My daughter’s elopement wedding was in a Vegas Chapel. She didn’t do the Elvis thing, although it was on their menu. The day of her wedding they told her they had one Elvis event and the rest were just Vegas Weddings. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/29 "2022-06-02T16:08:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@silenus](#): > > > > Question for the legal types: Does the fact that the Elvis Estate hasn’t bitched about the chapels for decades give them whatever the version of “adverse possession” there is on likenesses and such? > > Probably. Any claim would presumably be on the basis of trademark, but in order to hold on to a trademark, you have to defend it. The chapels would just have to demonstrate to the court a long history of not defending the trademark, and they’d win. > > The catch there is “to a court”. Lawyers are expensive, and so threats of legal action can be a game of chicken. If don’t think the other side is going to swerve, there’s a strong incentive for you to swerve, so as to avoid the court costs entirely. This would likely not be a trademark claim, but rather a claim under personality law/right of publicity law. I don’t believe that there is a “use it or lose it” aspect to this kind of law, but this is on a state by state basis, so you would have to study the law of the state under which this claim is being asserted. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/30 "2022-06-02T16:29:05Z")
Why is it only Las Vegas that does these things? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/31 "2022-06-02T16:33:26Z")
_Somebody_ has to embrace the crazy. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/32 "2022-06-02T16:36:05Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Why is it only Las Vegas that does these things? Likely a convergence of two things: - Nevada’s laws allow “quickie” weddings (no blood tests, no waiting period after issuing the marriage license), so there are a number of businesses, particularly in Vegas, built specifically around facilitating weddings. - As Elvis is closely associated with Vegas, for various reasons (his movie _Viva Las Vegas_, his residency shows there in the late '60s and '70s, and his own marriage to Priscilla, which took place in Vegas), there’s long been a tradition of Elvis impersonators/tribute acts in Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/33 "2022-06-02T18:36:36Z")
I lived in Las Vegas for 10 years. Got married while living there, but the wedding was not in Vegas and had no Elvii. However I did attend a different wedding in Las Vegas as explained in this post of mine from last year: > [@Wedding cost vs marriage duration](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wedding-cost-vs-marriage-duration/939610/28): > > Many years earlier while living in Las Vegas I had a different receptionist. Who was no rocket scientist but was down-to-earth and sweet as all get out. Her BF owned a small electrician service and moonlighted as an Elvis impersonator. They got married in a Vegas wedding chapel with him in his Elvis gear and her in a snazzy white dress despite her prior marriage and two kids in elementary school. My whole office attended and it was a real tearjerker - He sang _Love Me Tender_ while playing his guitar during his walk up the aisle. That joint would marry you for $50. We held a reception back at the office on my nickel. > > They’re still married ~30 years later. Though the chapel went out of business 10ish years ago. I walked by where it had been last weekend. When your marriage outlasts your wedding “church” you know you’re doing something right. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/34 "2022-06-02T18:46:03Z")
Seems like kind of a lame-o way to start off a marriage anyway. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/35 "2022-06-02T18:48:11Z")
It’s certainly not for everyone, but then, neither is an elaborate church wedding with 300 guests and a high-five-figure wedding reception. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/36 "2022-06-02T18:58:49Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > It seems more likely that they could argue “fair use” under the thesis that such presentations are obvious parodies in a long established tradition of such portrayals in television, film, theater, et cetera. I mean, who are they going to go after next? [Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner?](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/3000_miles_to_graceland) Not to mention Bruce Campbell. > **[Bubba Ho-Tep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubba_Ho-Tep)** > > Bubba Ho-Tep is a 2002 American comedy horror film written, co-produced and directed by Don Coscarelli. It stars Bruce Campbell as Sebastian Haff, a man residing in a nursing home who claims to be the real Elvis Presley. The film also stars Ossie Davis as Jack, a black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy, explaining that he was patched up after the assassination, dyed black, and abandoned. > It is based on the novella of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, which originally appeared in the anthology... ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/37 "2022-06-02T19:05:04Z")
My favorite scene from that film is actually Ossie Davis explaining that he is John F. Kennedy: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_NO3LQ691gc/hqdefault.jpg "Elvis and JFK in Bubba Ho-Tep") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NO3LQ691gc) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/38 "2022-06-02T19:24:40Z")
I kinda had an Elvis wedding. We got married in Vegas at one of those small chapels that offered the Elvis package, but they only had one officiant to perform all ceremonies. And he looked like Elvis. So if you paid for the Elvis package, he put on the rhinestone jumpsuit, if not he wore a suit and tie. So we had a suit and tie Elvis officiate our wedding, ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/39 "2022-06-02T20:02:40Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Seems like kind of a lame-o way to start off a marriage anyway. Speaking for yourself only, of course. (How long has your marriage lasted? Our Elvis wedding was over 30 years ago…which could be considered to be lame by some.) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533/40 "2022-06-02T23:18:34Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Why is it only Las Vegas that does these things? Vegas beat Florida in a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors for first pick. > [@silenus](#): > > _Somebody_ has to embrace the crazy. And you see what they ended up with! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-elvis-themed-weddings-in-las-vegas-chapels/965533.md?page=3)